The present invention relates to a method used for installing software components at a user-terminal and the related devices.
The method refers to installing one or more software components at a user terminal to provide the user of this user-terminal with a kind of functionality that enables the user to access a host or a kind of service provided by this host which can be a service provider.
These software components are software components that are necessary for providing a user of a user terminal with a basic functionality, like an internet browser and possible other software components necessary to get this internet-access in case of the internet service provider.
The installation of software components is currently done by using a floppy-disk or a CD-ROM, like the floppy-disk or a CD-ROM an internet service provider provides the user with, in order to get internet access. The user has to retrieve these software components from the floppy-disk or a CD-ROM to install them at the user-terminal.
This consequently requires an explicit installation step of this software. This installation procedure is sometimes too difficult for the user, resulting in significant deployment costs for the service provider. Besides this, the service provider does not have any means to guarantee that the user will install the software components and consequently he will have no means to control or manage the functionality on a user terminal.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of the above known type but wherein the software modules are installed at the user terminal where the contribution of the user of the terminal is reduced to a minimum. A further object of the present invention is to provide a service provider with means to control to a certain degree the functionality of a user-terminal and to reduce deployments costs.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by a method for installing software components at a user-terminal of a plurality of user-terminals in a communications-network, the communications network further comprising, a plurality of hosts and a plurality of network gateways, where the user-terminal is connected to a network gateway of said plurality of network gateways, the method comprising the steps of: the network gateway receiving a connection request from the user-terminal to establish a connection between the user-terminal and a host of the plurality of hosts, the network gateway detecting if the software components are available at the user-terminal; and performing the following steps if the software components are not available:
the network gateway holding said establishment of said connection between the user-terminal and the host;
the network gateway establishing a connection between the user-terminal and a service provisioning network element also included in the communications network;
the service provisioning network element downloading to the user-terminal the software components from the service provisioning network element over the established connection between the user-terminal the and said service provisioning network element; and
the network gateway resuming said establishing of said connection between said user-terminal and the host upon detection of the end of the download.
The object of the invention is further achieved by a network gateway comprising: connection request reception and establishing means, adapted to receive a connection request from the user-terminal to establish a connection between the user-terminal and a host, wherein the network gateway further comprises: software component detection means, coupled with an input to an output of the connection request reception and establishing means and adapted to detect if the software components are available at the user-terminal; connection holding means, coupled with an input to an output of the software component detection means and adapted to hold said establishment of said connection between the user-terminal and the host; service provisioning connection establishment means, coupled with an input to an output of the connection holding means and adapted to establish a connection between the user-terminal and a service provisioning network element also included in the communications network and to notify the service provisioning network element to download the software components over the connection; and connection re-establishment means, adapted to resume the establishing of the connection between the user-terminal and the host upon detection of the end of the download.
The object of the invention is still further achieved by a service provisioning network element comprising: connection establishment notification reception means, adapted to receive a notification of an established connection between the service provisioning network element and the user terminal; and software component downloading means, coupled with an input-terminal to an output-terminal of the connection establishment notification reception means and adapted to download to the user-terminal software components from the service provisioning network element over the established connection between the user-terminal and the service provisioning network element. In this way, by forcing a user-terminal at use of this terminal to contact a service provisioning network element, this service provisioning network element will provide the user with the required software components. If a user terminal contacts a Network Gateway, constituting the communications network edge and being owned by a service provider, in order to connect to some point, a host in the communications network, e.g. a server or second user terminal, the Network Gateway will check whether the software components are already installed on this terminal. If the software components are not yet installed, the Network Gateway will connect the user terminal to the service provisioning network element, that has the needed software components at its disposal and which will take care of the installation of this software components at the user terminal. After the installation of the software components has finished, the Network Gateway will connect the user to the originally requested destination, the server or a second user terminal.
Another characteristic feature of the present invention resides in the method described above wherein the method further comprises between the establishing and downloading steps, the step of detecting if the software components are available at the user-terminal by the service provisioning network element.
In this way when the user terminal is connected to the service provisioning network element, the service provisioning network element can itself determine which software components are needed at the user-terminal and consequently which kind of software components have to be downloaded by the service provisioning network element to the user-terminal.
Still another characteristic feature of the present invention resides in the method as described above wherein the software components are initial software components.
In case the user terminal connects for the first time to the network gateway or to the service provisioning network element it is detected whether or not the initial software components are available at the user terminal and consequently determined whether or not the initial software components have to be downloaded to the user-terminal. This feature is useful in situations where the user-terminal needs an initial software packet in order to be able to perform specific further actions.